Sinéad O'Connor Blasts Simon Cowell for 'Murdering' Music

The Irish singer – who got into a war of words with Miley Cyrus earlier this week after reaching out to the 20-year-old in an open letter advising her not to "prostitute" herself – is now worrying about the death of rock 'n' roll.

In an interview on The Late Late Show in Ireland on Friday, the 46-year-old blasted the X Factor judge.

"I feel sorry for the murder of music and rock 'n' roll, which has happened because of the industry. Because of Simon Cowell, [and his fellow judge, music exec] Louis Walsh – they've murdered music," she said.

The singer believes that the moneymaking side of the industry has taken over and the result has been "the sexualizing of extremely young people" and the worship of "money and bling and diamonds."

"There's a certain alarm that needs to be rung and I know there are a lot of musicians around the country and around the world that will agree," she said. "The power of rock 'n' roll to change things, to move people, is being murdered by all this worship of fame, Pop Idol, X Factor, all this stuff."

While O'Connor says she reached out as a mother, Cyrus lashed out on Twitter, taunting the Grammy-winner over her previous battle with mental illness and comparing her to troubled actress Amanda Bynes, who is currently undergoing psychiatric treatment.

"I was upset on behalf of Amanda Bynes, not for myself," O'Connor said. "I thought it was a nasty thing to do. She had nothing to do with the conversation and also the poor girl is in hospital receiving treatment for the very illness she's being knocked for having."

"It was a very nasty time to expose a girl but I doubt Miley is a person who sat down and maliciously thought that I want to hurt Amanda Bynes," she continued. "We're all human and we all do things off the cuff."